Beat Your Anxiety By Breaking the Chain of Low Self Esteem

Low self esteem is not often associated with anxiety attacks, yet researchers have discovered a distinct connection between the two.
Anxiety attacks trigger doubts. Sometimes, it's unclear to you that this is happening because it's usually on a sub-conscious level. If you already have low self-esteem any concerns about taking on a task can trigger an anxiety attack. This is why it's important that you focus on breaking the chain of low self esteem to stop your anxiety attacks.
People who experience anxiety attacks might be worried about their next school assignment, of going shopping, or of attending a social gathering. In severe cases, they are afraid to leave the house. Just getting to a medical appointment is a major trial for some people.
This is the stage where the chain of low self esteem and anxiety is in full swing.
Regardless of the cause for the anxiety attacks, people who suffer from them also experience low self-esteem and lack of confidence.
But exactly what is self-esteem? Self esteem develops and evolves throughout our entire lives, beginning in childhood. How we learn to view ourselves as children, based on how we are treated by our parents, siblings, teachers, coaches and religious leaders will contribute to our level of self-esteem.
Our self-esteem is also defined by our successes and failures, and how we learn to handle them. We develop a view of ourselves, our self image, based on how we feel about our abilities to live effectively in the society around us. In childhood, this is a crucial aspect of our growth.
Whether we develop high or low self-esteem, we can be sure of one thing. Our level of confidence will change from one day to the next as a normal part of life. Almost everyone's feelings and thoughts about themselves fluctuate occasionally in direct relation to the types of experiences in their daily lives. A recent school or medical exam, how their peers treat them, job pressures and personal relationships all can have a temporary impact on how they feel on a given day.
Low self esteem involves more than just the normal ebb and flow of a person's sense of well-being in response to everyday situations.
People who have a good, healthy sense of self will sail through those fluctuations with ease and quickly bounce back. Those with an existing low self esteem, on the other hand, can be dramatically affected by those ups and downs. They can experience depression, loneliness, anxiety attacks and panic that can be short lived or long lasting.
In fact, low self esteem can create anxiety, stress, relationship problems, impaired job performance, contribute to underachievement and can lead to increased vulnerability to drug and alcohol abuse.
As you can see, this chain of low self esteem and anxiety can grow and expand. The resulting negative consequences reinforce the existing negative self-image, leading the person into even lower self-esteem and possibly to self-destructive behavior.
Take Baby Steps One of the first goals for an anxiety sufferer then, must be to aim at breaking the chain of low self esteem in order to experience full, permanent recovery from their anxiety attacks.
While in a state of low self esteem and depression, and dreading yet more anxiety attacks, it can be difficult to "stretch yourself", as some people have suggested. Much of the lack of productivity and fear related to tackling otherwise simple tasks is directly linked to the fear of failure.
Failure would present a devastating blow to an already low self esteem. The natural instinct at that point is to do nothing or experience anxiety attacks at the prospect of taking such action.
The key to overcoming this dilemma is to start small in breaking the chain of low self esteem and anxiety, and building your confidence.
One great way to begin this process is to take a close look at your abilities, skills and interests. If you can't think of any, go back through your school reports if you still have them. Don't worry if you had poor marks. You'll undoubtedly find a few subjects in which you excelled. Everyone can do something extra well..
Go down the list and pick out the areas in which you did well. How do you feel about those subjects? Are they things you would like to do again?
It's important to find something that you've already proven you can do well. Most likely, when you recall your success, you will feel at the very least a slight surge of confidence. It can be anything - art class, economics, metal shop, computer work, leadership, sports, drama or music.
Would you want to get involved in that subject again? How would you proceed? Are there instructional manuals you can study? Is there a local workshop you can attend? What about night courses? Does your area have a club specifically for that interest that you can join?
Some abilities include: drawing, designing, playing an instrument, accounting/bookkeeping, drafting, sense of humor, good memory, good with your hands, mechanically inclined, electrical knowledge, working with wood, interior painting, wallpapering, working with textiles... the list is endless.
If you can find an activity that boosts your low self-esteem, makes you feel productive and talented, and gives you something positive to think about instead of focusing on your anxiety, you are sure to start seeing a tremendous improvement in your condition. You will be on the path to breaking the chain of low self esteem and curing your anxiety attacks for good.

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Our Lives And The Impact Of Medication

Using medication to supposedly cure disease or ameliorate uncomfortable symptoms has become a part of our lives in Western culture. It is a part of the "pill for every ill" mentality that came about in the 1950s subsequent to the development of antibiotics and then tranquilizers. The ability to kill bacteria using antibiotics, thus literally saving thousand lives from the ravages of simple infections, naturally led to the idea that other medications might do the same for other diseases. However, over half a century later the medical profession finds itself in a very awkward and embarrassing position. An editorial in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Jerry Avorn in November 2006 opens with the following paragraph -
"September 30 is becoming a day of infamy for drug safety. On that date in 2004 Merck announced that rofecoxib (Vioxx) doubled the risk of myocardial infarction [heart attack] and stroke and the company withdrew the drug from the market after 5 years of use in more than 20 million patients." If this was an isolated situation, then my concern might be less. The problem is that this is a class of drugs known as NSAIDS, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatories -- perhaps better known to you as aspirin, ibuprofen, Advil®, Tylenol®, etc. Now make no mistake about it, these drugs are effective in relieving pain from acute illness, and indeed they were supposed to be used that way. These long-term side effects that are being discovered are only being brought to light because long-term testing of these drugs does not take place until after they come to market! It takes literally millions of dollars to bring a drug to market these days, and pharmaceutical companies simply do not do long-term testing on all new medications, in the race to have the latest blockbuster drug. So who becomes the guinea pig?
The answer is that you become the guinea pig after the drug is initially approved; and it is only after long periods of time with use by many people that these side effects are coming to light. You may recall, particularly if you are woman, that early in the millennium conjugated estrogens, better known as Premarin®, were found to increase heart disease as opposed to decreasing it -- the latter was a claim the drug companies and doctors had made for over 15 years. There was also a slight increase in the incidence of breast cancer. Women had been the subject of a huge uncontrolled experiment. Since that time hundreds of thousands of women have stopped taking conjugated estrogens and guess what? A recent study in 2006 showed that the incidence of breast cancer had decreased significantly over the last 5 years since women have decreased their intake of conjugated estrogens. Coincidence? Perhaps. More likely that the impact of huge numbers of women decreasing conjugated estrogens may actually be decreasing the incidence of breast cancer.
More concerning is that this is becoming a trend. The latest drug to receive a seal of disapproval is the anti-diabetic medication rosiglitazone. All that glitters is not gold! A large analysis in a 2007 study, again in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed a significant increase in the number heart attacks and death from heart disease in patients taking this medication. It's bad enough that diabetes itself causes increased heart problems; we do not need a drug that is supposed to help control diabetes actually increasing death from heart attack!
Do you want to think twice before taking any drugs on a long-term basis? Absolutely. Many of these drugs were developed for acute pain situations -- not always for long-term use in ongoing osteoarthritis or other chronic illness. All these medications are foreign to our bodies, and they not only target those areas of our bodies that are in pain, say for example in the case of Vioxx, but they also target other areas of the body such as our blood vessels and stomach lining causing them to be affected in adverse ways through increased heart disease, or gastric upset and potential bleeding.
Adverse drug reactions were found to be one of the six leading causes of hospital deaths, reported in the Journal American Medical Association in 1997. Why are we taking drugs that are supposed to help us when they are actually killing us? It's a good question that cannot be answered in this short article.
These adverse effects are not limited to pain killers, hormone replacement therapy, and anti-diabetes drugs, but have also been found to be significant in antidepressants that are prescribed to hundreds of thousands of people every year. A small increase in the suicide rate amongst those taking certain antidepressants, when pointed out by the psychiatric expert Dr. David Healey, resulted in his deferral from his upcoming position with the Canadian Association of Mental Health at the University of Toronto. A few years ago certain drug companies funded multiple clinical trials of their anti-depressants known as SSRIs - but they only reported the results of the favourable trials, and suppressed the unfavourable results! The impact of the pharmaceutical industry on medical science is both enormous and dangerous.
If you have to take medication then stick with the older medications that have been tried and true. You are better off in most cases because they have had the research behind them for many years, but... Lifestyle intervention on the other hand -- taking care of ourselves, eating healthy foods, exercising, relaxation, and just taking time to chill out have no adverse effects. They also have significant impact upon disease -- recent studies in Type II diabetes have shown that compared to diabetic drugs, lifestyle intervention was much more efficacious in keeping diabetes under control.
Take care of yourself - you're worth it. And if you want to read that editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine you can find it at by searching for http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/355/21/2169 on a search engine.
Edward Leyton MD 2007 © Accessing Resources for Empowerment(TM) 2007

There are four basic principles to health:
1. Good nutrition
2. Good exercise
3. Good thinking and emotional states
4. Good self-care
These embrace the mind, body and spirit of good health and well-being. This article and Dr. Leyton's monthly newsletter addresses one or more or more of these principles. These health tips are short and simple. All tips, where applicable, are based on quality research that is being done in the medical field.
You can subscribe to the free newsletter by signing up at http://www.arfe.ca You will see links throughout the newsletter to take you to more detail if you wish...or you can simply read what's there.

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Mental Health And Bipolar Awareness

Bipolar Disorder is one of many various mental health disorders.
It has not been determined exactly what causes bipolar disorder although most experts think that it has much to do with genetics. There is also documentation that many people who have this infliction have suffered childhood abuse or some type of trauma and there is also documentation that supports the theory of patient seizures which set off the episodes of manic and depressive moods.
The symptoms are varied and different for each individual although they can generally be described as manic, hypo-manic, depressive and mixed. Many times you can find individuals who exhibit more than one type or who fluctuate back and forth between the types.
There are quite a few different types of treatments that range all the way from drug therapy such as lithium or anti-convulsant mood stabilizers to anti-depressants. It has also been suggested that many people find acupuncture to work well as an adjunctive therapy. Psychotherapy and counseling can really help and many people hold testament to that. It is in these types of stable confidential relationships that patients feel the most secure and are able to open up. This often takes time to develop into that trust but both client and practitioner must be patient and consistent. For loved ones this can be a particularly trying time as it is hard to watch your friend or relative going through this with so much accompanying doubt.
For the person who is affected, it is important to be aware of their own individual triggers for bipolar disorder. There are however some common ones to avoid. These triggers include but are not limited to stress, substance abuse, lack of sleep,and a decrease in exercise.
Stress can bring on a episode rapidly. Substance abuse is another trigger although often this is a result of people trying to self medicate. Some people find certain medications should be avoided. You will be able to tell your doctor and he/she can adjust or change the medication accordingly.It is also very important to make certain that you are getting enough sleep and to keep a regular sleep schedule. You must be very attentive to discover what your particular triggers are and to take steps to educate yourself about the illness. It is highly recommended to keep track of your moods so that you can get a better understanding of how this affects you as an individual.
One of the biggest risks and tragedies that we face with mental health issues is the risk of suicide. Bipolar disorder is one of the top statistics with all the mental health disorders out there.
A good suggestion for someone who suffers from bipolar disorder is to try journaling. I know that this can seem like an formidable task but if you try writing a little each day then you will be able to detect your slide earlier and help stop that regression sooner the next time.
You will be able to consult with your doctor in regards to what may help and you will be able to give some valuable advice to loved ones who desperately want to help but don't know how. The biggest problem when someone is manic is getting them to take their medications because they are feeling so good they don't want to change that but it is an unnatural state of euphoria. The absolute biggest thing is to keep the individual taking their medications.
If the medications that you are on are not working you must go back to the doctor to change them to something that will work better for you. While this disorder affects millions of people, it is common to feel alone while in a low episode. There are many resources and support groups where you can share your experiences. Many people who have bipolar disorder are able to live full and rewarding lives.

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